Mysterious Stranger
by xatsumex
Summary: Kagome goes to Seigaku to pick up Echizen for his surprise birthday party


Enjoyy

Humming a tuneless song, Kagome strolled down the two to three blocks that it took to get from her cousin's house to his school. She was finally back in her era again! Smiling happily, she couldn't help but feel slight nostalgia as she once again breathed in the pollution-infested air and walking past miniscule reminders of the vast forests in the feudal eras that were called parks these days.

Of course, it wasn't easy to get a three-day break out of Inuyasha. She had to threaten to send him plummeting out the other side of the earth and into outer space, before he allowed her to come back to her time. Of course that threat in itself had to be explained and then simplified to serve its purpose, but she was back and that was the point; not that he could have argued back when he was buried at least six feet under.

But, she wasn't going to think about it. After all, today was a special day!

Her cousin, Echizen Ryoma was finally back from America. Actually he had been back for a couple of months already…

But, today was his birthday! And she was going to celebrate it with him no matter what that stupid inu said.

Being the well organized girl that she was brought up to be, she had informed her family and Echizen's family about her intentions weeks before the special day and even came home early enough to bake him a cake.

And as the promised day arrived, she and her family packed up their presents and the cake into the family wagon and headed to Echizen's house.

Arriving hours before his school ended, Kagome had set out to make this the best (late) welcome back and birthday party he ever had.

Before they knew it, however, Auntie Rinko had gasped. With an airy "oh my gosh we're behind schedule", she shooed Kagome out to pick up the birthday boy while promising to finish up the last of the decorations.

So that's where Kagome was now, humming nonsensical songs she had learned from Rin and following Auntie Rinko's (badly) drawn map to a place called Seishun Academy.

***

Echizen was bored. Beyond bored actually.

Before he left for school, his mom had informed him that he would have a little surprise waiting for him at home. And as he walked out the door, she had, politely, yet leaving no room for arguments, asked him to skip him tennis club today.

And while he couldn't possibly disobey his mother, upon fear of death or worse, he could bitch and make nasty remarks at each of his teammates forms and return shots to reciprocate their "ochibi is missing out" and how the "birthday boy" was too delicate to play that day.

Though there was also so much they could take before they tied him up and duct taped his mouth shut. And he had almost reached that line, so all he could do now was sit and watch as his teammates warmed up with yet another idea that Inui thought up. While it wasn't as entertaining as the other ones the team has been through, it was an interesting new way of training and Ryoma couldn't wait to try it at home.

But according to his mother, he still had to wait for a "signal" before he was allowed home, therefore he was stuck at school, with nothing to do but making fun of Momoshiro's amazingly bad shots… until one of them flew out of the tennis court doors and headed straight for the back of a girl who seemed surprisingly familiar.

***

Upon arriving at Echizen's school, Kagome couldn't help but gasp at the prestige the school excluded, not to mention that it was almost double the size of her own school.

Cursing, she realizes that Auntie Rinko had forgotten to tell her how to get to the tennis courts, and if she were to wander around by herself, she would never find it in a school this size.

Surprisingly, the school was almost empty at the time with no one to give her directions. And since there was nothing else for her to do, standing still wouldn't help her predicament, she picked her favorite direction, west, and hoped with all her heart she would eventually get to the tennis courts.

After ten minutes of wandering around, Kagome finally happened upon two girls who had tennis rackets.

"Do you know where the boy's tennis courts are?"

One of them, with two ponytails, one on each side of her head, had glared at her. "You're not going there to steal my prince are you?"

"Hehe, actually we're just about to go there too, why don't you come with us?" The other one, her hair in two long, long braids, had shut her hand over her overly contentious friend's mouth.

Not long, walking in the opposite direction that Kagome was going in, they finally heard the sound of balls being hit around. As they got closer, they found a stray racket on the floor and since the other two already had their own rackets, Kagome picked it up.

On further examination, she found it was a rather old one. The frame was wooden, instead of the hybrid metal ones that came with the new technology; good wood though and nicely sanded Kagome noticed. But the middle stringy part was frayed and damaged with age and use, impossible to use in any game unless changed. Nevertheless, she decided to return it to the tennis club at the school instead of leaving it abandoned where anyone could accidentally step on and break it.

At the tennis courts, as Kagome, Sakuno and Tomoka were parting ways, Kagome suddenly sensed something, not big, headed straight towards her. And from both Sakuno and Tomoka's gasps and the direction they were pointing at, she deducted that she was right, and it was coming from her behind.

Automatically she slide into one of the forms that Sesshoumaru had all but drilled her into, the racket in hand, and Sesshoumaru's words clearly resounding in her head.

_Pinpoint the direction the attack is coming from. _Check.

_If possible, analyze the type of attack it is, projectile or not, and through this determine how one should retaliate. _Nope, not enough time.

In that case, _put as much distance between one and the enemy so, if even he/she is much faster, one would have a slightly longer time to analyze the enemy_. Done.

And Kagome hit the ball, as hard as she could, using the frame of the racket, back in the direction it came at.

It was disorienting for her to see a flash of yellow, circle-y thing instead of the enemy attack she had been waiting for before she realized that she was not in the feudal eras anymore. But the damage was done, and as she followed the path the tennis ball went in, she saw Echizen, her target and grabbed him before fleeing the scene.

It was almost halfway back to Echizen's home before she had allowed them to slow down from her escapade in fear of being followed. And although Ryoma had been too shocked to do anything but follow, she used the time to examine him.

The ball had skinned his left cheek, and left a little line of blood in its wake. But he didn't seem to notice and she managed to heal him with a slight brush of her miko powers before he did. Other than that, it was only the usual things that happen when friends have been separated for long periods of time.

"Didn't your grandfather say you had a disease that impaired muscle movement?" Echizen managed to wheeze out from his bent over position when they finally stopped. "How are you able to run so fast?"

"You know how senile my grandfather can get," Kagome said, sweat dropping."It was actually just a dog that came over. And after that I couldn't go to school for weeks!"

It didn't matter to her that what she said made no sense to Echizen at all, she had told the truth after all, since they've finally arrived at home, saving Kagome from explaining.

"Happy Birthday Ryoma!" was Kagome's only reply to his confused look as she shoved him indoors for his party.

***

Back at Seishun Academy, the members of the tennis club gaped at the rapidly disappearing forms of the unknown women and Ryoma. Takashi Kawamura, the power player of the regulars, had moved to intercept Kagome's ball, hoping to stop it in its path so they wouldn't have to pick it up later. To his surprise, and everyone else's, his racket flew out of his hand and the ball had kept going until it met a concrete wall. And even then, it had left a nice two-inch dent before dropping down harmlessly to the ground.

As the practices resumed, Kawamura's wrists were still shaking so Coach Ryuzaki had to send him to the nurse to get it checked, leaving everyone to wonder at the power and amazingly fast reflexes of the mysterious women that had spirited their Ochibi away.

To anyone who's still waiting on my other story, I'm really sorry but this one wouldn't leave me alone until I had it outta my head.

Well that and I severely underestimated college apps. Hopefully I'll be back to "itoshii hito" soon… mayb…

Oh yeah… kinda crappy last bit for this story… but I couldn't think of any other way to end it.

Thx for reading


End file.
